Interviewer: And when and how did you join the armed service, and which unit were you in, and what did you do?

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1 Hoy Creed Barton WWII Veteran Interview Hoy Creed Barton quote on how he feels about the attack on Pearl Harber It was something that they felt they had to do, and of course, they had higher ups that were over them. We had higher ups over us. I don't feel any animosity to any of them, the Germans or the Japanese or anyone. It was just a job to do. Special note: This interview of WWII Veteran, Hoy Creed Barton, was conducted on March 18, This interview was conducted by a Japanese student, whom was attending school at Glenville State College. The interviewer s name is Mariko Egashira. West Virginia Veterans Legacy Project Interviewer: Ok, Could you tell me your name and birth? Hoy Creed Barton: Hoy Creed Barton. Hoy Creed Barton: My birthday is the 8th day of October Interviewer: And when and how did you join the armed service, and which unit were you in, and what did you do? Hoy Creed Barton: Before I went, or, or when I went into service? Well, when I went into the service, I was drafted. Interviewer: Ok. Hoy Creed Barton: I took my first physical before December the 7, in 1941, matter of fact, I took both of them, but I was waiting to be drafted. I took my basic training in the infantry, and then, at that time, to be a pilot you had to have two years of college, which I didn't have, I just had a high school education. But then, along about, I don't know, November, I believe it was, of a 1942, they come out with, if you could pass the examination with a high school education, you could get into be a pilot. Then if you could pass that, and there was four of us took it out of my outfit and two of us passed. Then went to, we went to Maxwell field to start with. And went through what they called pre-flight. It was all either training or school. One, you unusually had half a day of exercises and things. Then, we had a half a day of school. When we finished there, we went to brief what they called primary. We had a little old twin-winged airplane with 225 horsepower engines in them and you had a half a day of flying, then a half a day of schooling and exercise. We had nine weeks of that. Then, we went to what they called basic. Went into a single-winged airplane, the wheels weren't retractable or anything, everything went down to a [unclear]. We had nine more weeks of the same thing, going of the morning and flying, or of the afternoon and flying. They rotated a week at a time, and then school, and exercise. Then we went to advanced, and I should have said the fields. We went on the primary, went down to Florida, to the Aviation Military Academy. Then, in basic, we went to Georgia, at Cochran field, and in the advanced, we went to Spence field in Georgia and graduated from there. We had nine weeks there of Flying and training but those planes had

2 retractable wheels, constant speed propeller, and we was mounted with one gun, so you could practice with them. I graduated on the 30th day of September, From then on, I went to Mitchell Field in New York. I was there one day. Now, they sent the five of us up there, and we spent one night. They sent us back to Richmond, Virginia, and we was there for just a little while because on the, I think the 20th day of November, something like that, they sent us to Delaware, and then, we started getting students up there and teaching them formation, flying, and stuff like that. I was there until the 14 th day of February, and then, I went to Blackstone, Virginia. Down there, we started teaching dog fighting and stuff like that. Dog fighting was more dangerous instructing than combat was. (Laughing) Because you didn't know what your students was going to do. I was there until July, and I went to Norfolk, Virginia to the air base there. Down there, we taught them high altitude gunnery, dog fighting, dive bombing, and all that kind of stuff. Finally, the 1st of January, they let us go overseas then, after a lot of begging and everything. Interviewer: What were you doing on December 7th? Hoy Creed Barton: December 7th was on a Sunday, if I remember right. I had been up at, well they didn't have church then, I was in a school house. I had been to church in a school house, and was on the way home when we heard about it. I had been working in the oil field. I was working on a drilling outfit when I left there. Then, on the 7th day of February was when I left for service. Interviewer: What did you think? Hoy Creed Barton: I didn't think much about it. I just, I was ready to go. It didn't worry me any. I didn't worry a bit about it. Interviewer: Is there anything changed, after it, after the Pearl Harbor? Hoy Creed Barton: Oh, I guess, to some extent. It didn't, it didn't for me. But I guess it did for a lot of people, but it was just something that we had to do. It was something that they had to do, and of course, they had higher ups that were over them. We had higher ups over us. I don't feel no, no animosity to any of them, the Germans or the Japanese or anyone. It was just a job to do. Interviewer: Do you remember how they people, how they think or something? Hoy Creed Barton: Oh, I really don't know. It's just pretty hard to say. Of course, we didn't in there, while we was in church, we was just more or less taught one thing and, of course now, well, when I was up there at Dover, of course, I had been in the service two years then. I couldn't get away, no way, we was there seven days a week, and my girlfriend, well we had been engaged for a good while, she came up, and we got married up there. Then, from then on, we lived what time she was with me, we lived in an apartment. We didn't live on the base or anything. We could live in an apartment. So, she would come stay a while, and then, she would come back home. She had a job here. She worked in the health department. Then, finally, when I went to Norfolk, while she came down there steady then and stayed because they had shut the health department down. That's about all I know there. Interviewer: Okay, How about August 5th? Hoy Creed Barton: Pardon? Interviewer: August 5 th, of 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped?

3 Hoy Creed Barton: Oh, let's see, we were down in southern France then. We were waiting to go to the Philippines. Why they didn't ship us earlier, I don't know, but we were there and we didn't hear much about it over there. Not too much. But we just heard that they had dropped the atomic bomb, and really, we didn't have the communications like you do now. Now, you can see on television, everything that goes on. But then, then you didn't know anything and mail, well it was hit and miss. Maybe you would get some letters some time, and then, maybe, you would get some that had been mailed a month or two before that. So, it wasn't, wasn't a very good communication. Interviewer: What were you doing on August 14th, when Japan surrendered? Hoy Creed Barton: We were there in southern France. We left on the first day of September and headed for the Philippines. We got out in the Atlantic Ocean, and the captain of the ship came on and he said, Men, I'm glad to tell you you're not going to Philippines, you're going back into New York city. He said I have forty-two days of provisions on this ship, and I want them all gone by the time we get into New into New York. Well, in twelve days we was back into New York. We ate like hogs because they had to throw them out. They had to dispose of all those and take on new. He provided for forty-two days for us to go to the Philippines. That's what it was going to take from [unclear] to the Philippines, was forty-two days on ship. So, they let us out there, and the Red Cross met us with a little bottle of chocolate milk and that big Hershey bar. That's all we had. No one else because your families didn't know you were coming home. I know my wife thought that I was going to the Philippines. She thought that she wouldn't hear from me for forty-two days. That's where we were then. Interviewer: While you were in France, did you have any contact with French people? Hoy Creed Barton: With who? Interviewer: French people. Hoy Creed Barton: French. Oh, yeah. After the war was over there, the Colonel, Major, and I we went to Paris on a five day leave down there. Of course, I couldn't speak a word of French, but we could go on the subway and anywhere we wanted to go, about. But in New York City, I couldn't find my way around to save my life on a subway. I liked French people fairly well. Now, I liked German people, even though we were at war with them. We weren't allowed to associate with them. No fraternization at all. We weren't allowed to talk to them. We were not supposed to talk to them or anything. Some of us did, just a little bit. Some of them could speak English. Now, I didn't like England. I didn't like England. I didn't like the people in England very well. It was so damp and foggy all the time. Interviewer: Oh, Okay. Hoy Creed Barton: And everything mildewed, like that. Interviewer: That's funny, because England was an alley of you at this time. Hoy Creed Barton: Yeah. Interviewer: How did you think of Japanese before or Japanese government during the war?

4 Hoy Creed Barton: Well, see, I wasn't, I didn't get over there for anything. I wasn't in contact with any of them, until after the war was over, see. All the younger generation, why there the only ones that I had any contact with. Of course, they can't help what went on. I just think as much of them as I do anyone else. Interviewer: Well, my grandparents were living in [unclear] during the war and they said, if they talk, like, something bad about the Japanese government, they would get arrested. Hoy Creed Barton: Urn hmm. Yeah. This was pretty much how it was. Everyone had to be careful with what they said. You know. I couldn't say much about that. I don't know much about it. Interviewer: How did you feel when the war is over, some more freedom? Hoy Creed Barton: Well, yes. Yes. Yeah. You weren't restricted in, afterwards, by what, what you could do, or say, or anything much like that. You know, and all. And, and then you could, you'd do pretty much what you wanted to then. If you wanted to stay in service, you could, and if you didn't, you could, you could leave. You could finally get out. Boy, I wish I had stayed and retired. I'll tell you. [Laughing] My wife, my wife liked it. But my mother, she kept saying, Oh, you're gonna get killed, you're gonna get killed. So, I won't have her worrying about it. I am just gonna get out. So, I did, but I wished I had stayed now. Interviewer: Well, is something you want to add? You want tell? Hoy Creed Barton: I don't, I don't know of anything that. Only that, most of the Air Force had a life of no comparison to what the infantry and what those guys put in on the ground. Because most of the time, we had good places to live, and we weren't down in the mud, and everything like that. All the infantry soldiers and the tanks, and all those were. I know my brother said one night, they would have frozen to death, if it hadn't been for a big candle they found in a house. They covered their foxhole over and had that candle a burning in it, to keep them warm. And we were, we lived up there at Frankfurt, at [Esborne?] We lived in a big resort, hotel. I had a room of my own up there. I had a room of my own, and a German maid, and all that. But I never saw her. I couldn't tell you whether she was sixteen or sixty, because they bused them in, and they took care of and cleaned the rooms, and made up our beds, and everything. Then, they left with them, before we left the field. So, I don't, I don't even know what she looked like, whether she was beautiful or what. Interviewer: Were your brother also in the air force? Hoy Creed Barton: What? Interviewer: Were your brother also in the Air Force? Hoy Creed Barton: No. No. He was in the infantry. Hoy Creed Barton: He was in the infantry. That's the reason he was in the bulge up there. See, when they went over, when they surrounded them in the bulge. And, he may be, he said something about calling him, seeing if he would come over too. He could tell you a lot of things, I can't.

5 Interviewer: Could you get any contact with him during the war? Hoy Creed Barton: Just that one time is all. I hadn't seen him. Interviewer: That. Hoy Creed Barton: Yeah. Interviewer: That picture. Hoy Creed Barton: Yeah. Yeah. That was after, right after the Germans surrendered there, let's see, May the eighth, I believe, I think was the last day I flew combat mission was the eighth day of May. Then, not long after, that is when I went down to see him. Interviewer: How about you family in America. How did they think? Hoy Creed Barton: Oh. I don't, I don't know. They never said nothing much about it. Hoy Creed Barton: Yeah. They didn't they hardly ever mentioned very much about it. Of course, We were never home. Well, after that, we just had for two, you know, I think it was a year and a half before I was home one time. They never talked much about it. Interviewer: Did you write or something to your family? Hoy Creed Barton: Pardon? Interviewer: Did you write or something to your family? Hoy Creed Barton: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Write. Yeah. Interviewer: How often you write? Hoy Creed Barton: Occasionally. Not too often. I wasn't very good at writing letters. No, not very good at writing letters. Interviewer: Okay, well. (END)